2022-10-23 A Meditation on Christian Think

“But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,” (Ro 6:17 ESV)

The Christian was down for the count, but what now bubbles to the surface is complete idea after complete idea: here I am; all life is from an eagle’s-eye gaze; I can see clearly now; there, would I have gone, were it not for the grace of God. All life is flashpoint after flashpoint, delight today in accepting Mercy upon Mercy and Freedom upon Freedom: so you, O Lord, truly intend to bind me up from my wounds and give me second, third, and untold new chances.

So you intend for a season to make mint off of the exchange, the dynamic, of Jesus’ blood for my sins. Make no mistake about it: an offering was made, a blood was shed, a life was judged, and all this not so we can quibble about how far from antiquity we now stand, quibbling about whether Jesus knew us personally when He took the blame; instead we simply believe life is no measured give-and-take but rather He accomplished untold goodness with that one sacrifice.

Untold goodness to we who hear the clarion call: today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Today, is strength for the battle, je ne sais quois discovery of a differing posture over and against that of heathenism and unbelief. Today, we are those humbled yet so that we might Rise even more strong. Today, we apologize not for what we believe because we believe Him who instructed us, who led us, who saw us gently begin to follow, hearts peaceable and alive, receptive, attuned, and rich.

Today our hearts are no stranger to such heavenly host, to a Divine Visitor, to letting things fructate and form around insanely positive, loving, generative good works. We are joy and peace in believing. We have a chip on our shoulder against the contagious unbelief: today, we are hearkening to our fellow man and woman, that they might make the tradeoff, their willpower for Divine sustenance, their composure for heaven-sent Occupation. We are occupied by a great Host, who does love us and clamor for our very souls to be an offering, simple offering yet heartfelt, like that of the penitent over and against the self-righteous (Lk 18:11ff). In this we can thrive somehow in unison with God’s great design and plans, yet still as those free to be Creatures and free to be Agents and free to be Wisdom and Mercy and Compassion spelt out.

Hungry, lean, mean, a fighting machine, Spirit prods us and keeps us thus winsome: rested, though not lazing about, fighting today and eager chomping at the bit, a bit most welcome and peace for the weary, for His burden is light, and His yoke is easy. So ideas do gestate and form, around the Presence of a Most High in our hearts, hearts safeguarded and jealously individualistic, self-made yet today in gratitude and peaceable discovery of a leader willingly to submit to. If, that is, we so feel called: put aside (is that all it amounts to?) the empty entertainment and the rather colorful tongue. Put aside the consorting and the debauchery. Put aside, are we to understand, everything that made life interesting? Yet something new is here, and more interesting: first of all to be non-judgmental, and secondly to know seasons of offerings and goodness will come, and third to understand God is after the proud soul, not after our meeker mistakes and simple expenditures. Our accounts are ripe and bountiful. The so-called first things are in fact only ours if we willingly do discover them, sanity and chastity over against a body ruled by its baser passions; speaking without vows because we are letting our “Yes” be “Yes”, and our “No” be “No” (Mt 5:37). Strange enamorations, ecstasies, discoveries, sweep over the woman or the man under Experience, under Encounter, under Conversion; we were once those curious but today that curiosity is sated, and we speak to a broader audience, have a wider relevance, are in the first class and world class bounty of our Lord and Savior Jesus, who did it in order that we, whom He saw by faith, might boast in something New and in utmost redemption of that Blood He lost.